The Revival of Traditional Water Buffalo Cheese Consumption

Class, Heritage and Modernity in Contemporary China

Bibliographic Data

ID5380644
AuthorsSau-Wa Mak, S K Paulina Mak (Chinese University of Hong Kong, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume22
Issue4
Pages322-347
Publication date2014-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFood and Foodways (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0740-9710 • E-ISSN: 1542-3484
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/07409710.2014.973797
OpenAlexW1983235904
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited33

This article provides an ethnography and analysis of the revival of the tradition of indigenous water buffalo cheese and milk product consumption in Shunde, Guangdong. Contrary to the widely held belief that dairy products are not part of the traditional Chinese diet, water buffalo cheese and milk products have been part of the food systems of Guangdong for centuries. But in the past 30 years, these indigenous milk products have been reinvented as a kind of culinary heritage, supplemented by new forms and practices. The popularity of water buffalo milk products in Shunde today has come about as a result of marketing by various agents, including cheese makers, milk merchants, chefs and the government in post-Mao China. Furthermore, the culture of milk consumption in Shunde today has been shaped by both the forces of post-reform economic development, international cultural institutions, the changing perceptions of members of different social classes, and modernity. The reinvented tradition of milk products provides people of different social classes with new ways of consuming milk products and of conducting social interactions

Biology · China · Consumption (sociology) · Cultural heritage · Economics · Economy · Government (linguistics) · Indigenous · Modernity · Political science · Popularity · Product (mathematics) · Social science · Sociology · Chinese history and philosophy · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy